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Directional interconnect cables

I see several big-name interconnect vendors mark directional arrows on the outer jacket of the cables.

How is it that a wire can be directional? It's a simple electrical conductor, how is it possible for it to be directional, to sound "better" when connected in one direction vs. the other? This does not make sense to me, perhaps someone here can explain how this can possibly be so...
lupinthe3rd
carl109
134 posts
 
This has been discussed in previous threads. Cheaper cables use the shield as a conductor, whereas better cables use two internal conductors (+ and -) with a separate shield. In directional cables this shield is only connected (earthed) at one end, hence the arrow.

I'll leave the more technically-savvy guys to say whether this has an impact on sound quality.
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
Point the arrow toward a common ground (usually the pre-amp or integrated amp). It's not showing the direction of signal, but the ground.

You may or may not hear a difference, depending on the freedom from 60-cycle noise in your system.

Dave
narrod
1,064 posts
 
DCstep, is this correct? I thought you always pointed in the direction of music flow i.e., source to preamp, preamp to amp and amp to speaker. Doesn't this assure that the grounded end of the shield is properly oriented? If not, I've been doing it wrong for 20 years.
tvad
9,467 posts
 
Dcstep has it correctly. Arrows indicate the end of the cable that has the shield connected (except for Purist Audio cables, which apparently have it backwards), and the arrows should point to common ground (the preamp).
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